On Blue

• Format Native 2048 × 1152, colour
• Length 16:15 minutes, non-orchestra version
  Live version in collaboration with Rafiq Bhatia and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
• Sound Dolby 5.1
• Year 2022
• Cast Jenjira Pongpas Widner
• Edited and Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
• Director of Photography Chatchai Suban
• Camera Assistant and Production Thanayos Roopkhajorn
• Set Director Natchanon Pribwai
• Production Crew Jirayu Rattanakhanahutanon, Pongsakorn Nanta, Suttipong Nanta
• Production Assistant Somporn Ruensai
• Production Manager Phatsamon Kamnertsiri
• Sound Designer Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr
• Digital Laboratory White Light Studio, Bangkok
• Post Production Producer Supapit Chirattikanon
• Colorist Chaitawat Thrisansri
• Production Kick the Machine Films

Artist’s statement

In 2018, I made a film called BLUE. In it, my regular actress Jenjira Pongpas Widner is unable to sleep. She is in a bed surrounded by banana trees. Nearby, a set of traditional theater backdrops unspools, revealing two alternate landscapes: a sunset over the sea and the foyer of a royal palace. Later on, her lack of sleep seems to set the place on fire. A flicker of personal and social recollections lingers on throughout the night.

I imagine that Jenjira’s insomniac fire will eventually die down and she will able to sleep. Similarly, I reflect on the past years as we appear to have slept through the pandemic. Perhaps we are ready to wake up. ON BLUE was inspired by the moments of awakening, of sunrise. As uncertainty becomes the norm, I treasure this phenomenon’s consistency. It’s predictable yet brings tremendous change.

Revisiting BLUE was like re-observing and rearranging a dream before dawn. Perhaps our brains are hurriedly retreating their fragmented scenes, storing them in the shadows before consciousness emerges. I saw a blue sheet crumble like a dream. An old cinema set was reanimated for the last performance.

When first light reaches the eyes, there is a profound sense of clarity. The color blue was giving way to the morning gold. Dream and reality coexist, memories and conditionings fade. Even the word “blue” has lost its meaning. In an instant, we are newborns with no ties to anything.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul, September 16, 2022